Verizon Approached Charter About Megamerger

Megalith

Megalith

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Verizon wants to buy up a cable company to pump up demand for its wireless products, and that could very well be Charter. While talks have been informal thus far, the CEO of Verizon did reportedly reach out to the Charter guys, though it is unknown whether they told the wireless giant to screw off or are actually contemplating the epic decision. The latter is a very real possibility, though, as their business goals correlate: Verizon would be able to sell wireless-and-wireline bundles to many more consumers, while Charter already had plans to resell Verizon Wireless service so they could become a wireless communications services provider. This all sounds really great, since we have so many choices for cable and internet service already. I wonder if service and costs will improve?

"Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has made a preliminary approach to officials close to Charter," and Verizon is "working with advisers to study a potential transaction," the report said, citing "people familiar with the matter." It's still unclear whether Charter's top executives are interested in a merger. Spokespeople for Verizon and Charter both declined comment when contacted by Ars today. If the companies do merge, they would create a mega-giant. Verizon's wireless division is the US' largest mobile carrier, with more than 140 million retail and wholesale connections. Verizon's wireline division has more than 7 million Internet subscribers over its fiber and DSL networks. Charter, meanwhile, bought Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks last year in a merger that made it the second largest US cable company after Comcast. Charter has more than 22 million Internet subscribers. A combined Verizon/Charter would surpass Comcast's total of 24 million fixed Internet subscribers.
 
Yuck! The less Verizon touches the better. I mean, they have great cell coverage, but that's pretty much it. Just went up to Canada for the weekend with family. My family is on T-Mobile. We get into Canada, and all receive "Welcome to Canada, all of your functions and rates will work as normal." text messages. The rest of the family (extended) were on Verizon and couldn't even use their phones other than emergency calls. They could have called Verizon, set it up, and paid more, but they chose not to, and so their devices were useless. I could call my kids while they were out doing their thing, but we couldn't get a hold of the rest of the family. Anyway, not 100% related to this news, but just kinda shows you what life would be like with them controlling (or partially controlling) your cable experience as well.
 
WTF! Didn't Charter just buy TWC? Do we really need even more consolidation in this industry? I think not. Alas, the current administration will almost certainly allow such a merger.
 
Charter is Time Warner here in Kansas City which has unlimited data. Pretty good service. We had it for about 9 or 10 months while we waited on Google Fiber. That would be the first thing Verizon killed was removing the no data caps. Maybe not in the Kansas City market because of Google Fiber but things could be changing. Google keeps reassuring it's not selling it's business. We get this feedback all the time but they are still without a president since November 2016. Some publications say a sell-off is ripe but it's purely speculation.

I am not very confident about the future of the internet atm.
 
At what point does government step in and put a stop to these megamergers? When there's only one company left?
 
TAP said:
At what point does government step in and put a stop to these megamergers? When there's only one company left?
Click to expand...

Only when AT&T is at the top of the chain. :D

Really though, it's getting pretty bad out there.
 
Gweenz, you are fined five credits for repeated violations of the verbal morality statute.
 
There goes the end of no data caps for me and my fellow TWC customers.

It's a good fit for both company so I'm sure the merger will be approved if both companies decide to go ahead with it.. All hail the mighty monopoly.
 
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Probable headline "Charter and Verizon promise no changes to employment levels as a result of merger"

2 months later probable headline "Charter-Verizon to reduce headcount by 10,000 in business operations streamlining effort"
 
snowcrash said:
There goes the end of no data caps for me and my fellow TWC customers.

It's a good fit for both company so I'm sure the merger will be approved if both companies decide to go ahead with it.. All hail the mighty monopoly.
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It really depends. Verizon has to not only get all of Charter's owners to agree, but also other issues. The FCC will probably approve it since the new head is pro-merger. The DOJ is another issue though along with several states. New York is very specifically unhappy with Verizon right now. A state could stop the merger dead if they put conditions on it that Verizon wouldn't agree to.
 
it is going to be SWbell all over again. time to break them all up again
 
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J3RK said:
Yuck! The less Verizon touches the better. I mean, they have great cell coverage, but that's pretty much it. Just went up to Canada for the weekend with family. My family is on T-Mobile. We get into Canada, and all receive "Welcome to Canada, all of your functions and rates will work as normal." text messages. The rest of the family (extended) were on Verizon and couldn't even use their phones other than emergency calls. They could have called Verizon, set it up, and paid more, but they chose not to, and so their devices were useless. I could call my kids while they were out doing their thing, but we couldn't get a hold of the rest of the family. Anyway, not 100% related to this news, but just kinda shows you what life would be like with them controlling (or partially controlling) your cable experience as well.
Click to expand...

I switched my business partner from AT&T to T-Mobile because of his overseas travels. His trips to Dubai were around $2k / month on AT&T. They're $200/mo on T-Mo, as they allow global roaming.
 
As a happy Charter customer I'm a little leery of this prospect. I've had Charter for little over a year and experienced zero outages (that I've noticed anyway), they have reasonable prices, consistent performance and no data caps. I'm also a Verizon customer but only because my job sends me to North Dakota a lot and Verizon is the only provider that has half way decent coverage out there.
 
SixFootDuo said:
Charter is Time Warner here in Kansas City which has unlimited data. Pretty good service. We had it for about 9 or 10 months while we waited on Google Fiber. That would be the first thing Verizon killed was removing the no data caps. Maybe not in the Kansas City market because of Google Fiber but things could be changing. Google keeps reassuring it's not selling it's business. We get this feedback all the time but they are still without a president since November 2016. Some publications say a sell-off is ripe but it's purely speculation.

I am not very confident about the future of the internet atm.
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Depends. The agreement for the merger of TW and Charter was they couldn't change prices (and I thought that included adding data caps) for several years. Regardless, they shouldn't be allowed to buy out Charter...but who knows what will happen now.
 
I really like my FiOS internet. (I can choose from fios or comcast in my area) They are one of the few companies that don't cap anymore (getting hard to find). They also don't give up your IP. I hate their overpriced wireless service though, so I won't get that.

But to the original topic, they really need to stop these monopolies from forming. There is no real way to get into this market as a startup because of the steep pockets you need to do so, so free market rules really can't apply. Like the airline industry.
 
Tiburon1186 said:
I really like my FiOS internet. (I can choose from fios or comcast in my area) They are one of the few companies that don't cap anymore (getting hard to find). They also don't give up your IP. I hate their overpriced wireless service though, so I won't get that.

But to the original topic, they really need to stop these monopolies from forming. There is no real way to get into this market as a startup because of the steep pockets you need to do so, so free market rules really can't apply. Like the airline industry.
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Yes they might not give up your IP but in my area they will cancel your account after a few claims. I did get some court papers from Comcast about me downloading something with Comcast years ago. My name wasn't on any off the document but letter said I needed to contact copy right holders lawyer. Think they were just phishing for people. I tossed them and haven't heard from anyone since.
 
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